State Right to Bear Arms in Connecticut

Last updated October 16, 2018.

The Constitution of the State of Connecticut provides that “[e]very citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state.”1

Connecticut courts have held that the right to bear arms is subject to reasonable regulation. In Benjamin v. Bailey, the Supreme Court of Connecticut held that a ban on assault weapons did not infringe on the right to bear arms because the ban “represents a reasonable exercise of the state’s police power” and continued to permit access to a wide array of weapons.2